Mold in unfinished home

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are building a small house out of lumber.

Unfortunately we had to frame it during rainy season and it rained terribly before we were able to install the roof. We tried to dry, sand the lumber with machines and clean it with a vacuum as much as we could.
We added the exterior plywood and that is about it and we moved in.
You can see all the stains and still some mold which i am going to continue cleaning now that we are living here.
I am very concerned because I have read about all the negative effects of mold and of course I have read threads here as well on how to deal with it.

we have not installed insulation and won´t until after.
Meanwhile we will install a wood burning stove and we have lots of windows that we will open on a daily basis.
I also want to use a small dehumidifier that we have and there are no pipes and no running water yet.

I guess my question and concerned is how worried should I be and will these things help combat.

We live in a country with dry and wet season and so I am also worried if having lots of windows and no insulation could actually contribute to the growth.

The home is elevated sitting on concrete columns so we know we just have to create a run off and remove any chances of standing water.
Since it is not finished and no outside walls have been installed, I am worried about the next rainy season coming soon.

I guess what are your thoughts, advice, anything that can help me take the next steps in the right order.

Thank you so much and I apologize because I know there is a lot of information here.

Welcome to the forum.

It is my understanding that the problem with mold is breathing in the spores.

Maybe wearing face masks until the problem is solved might help.

Be sure that the house is getting good ventilation so that no more will develop.

I'm not an expert by any means. But mold is everywhere in nature.

And we are part of nature. From a social scientist's vocabulary, our built environment is templated on top of the natural environment. That said, nature loves for things to rot, and we don't want our homes to do that.

And so, mold is bad!

But some molds are bad for better reasons: They can harm our health. One big culprit is black mold. You don't want to breathe the spores into your lungs.

Mold needs moisture to survive. Once the house is buttoned up, that should take care of itself if it is built right.

For those areas that still require remediation, luckily there are non-gick remedies...stuff that generally you can eat, that will kill mold:

Hydrogen peroxide (please don't drink it), baking soda, vinegar.

I don't know of ways to remedy discoloration from porous surfaces. Maybe someone else does.

j

brenda garcia wrote:Hi everyone,

My husband and I are building a small house out of lumber.

Unfortunately we had to frame it during rainy season and it rained terribly before we were able to install the roof. We tried to dry, sand the lumber with machines and clean it with a vacuum as much as we could.
We added the exterior plywood and that is about it and we moved in.
You can see all the stains and still some mold which i am going to continue cleaning now that we are living here.
I am very concerned because I have read about all the negative effects of mold and of course I have read threads here as well on how to deal with it.

we have not installed insulation and won´t until after.
Meanwhile we will install a wood burning stove and we have lots of windows that we will open on a daily basis.
I also want to use a small dehumidifier that we have and there are no pipes and no running water yet.

I guess my question and concerned is how worried should I be and will these things help combat.

We live in a country with dry and wet season and so I am also worried if having lots of windows and no insulation could actually contribute to the growth.

The home is elevated sitting on concrete columns so we know we just have to create a run off and remove any chances of standing water.
Since it is not finished and no outside walls have been installed, I am worried about the next rainy season coming soon.

I guess what are your thoughts, advice, anything that can help me take the next steps in the right order.

Thank you so much and I apologize because I know there is a lot of information here.

Brenda, can you post a few pictures of the framing and plywood? Is the mold just on the framing or in the plywood too? Solid wood can be sanded to remove the worst stains, dried then painted to seal in any residual spores. Plywood is a little more difficult depending on the extent of the water damage. OSB is bad when it gets wet since it's candy to mold and loses some structural integrity.

Good call on not putting in insulation until you're sure the mold is taken care of.

Baking soda, yay!  (and sometimes vinegar)

While I can't guarantee anything, you'd need a lab test to tell you exactly the type of mold you have, I've used this extensively and there's a lotta, lotta mold where i am.

As you know, if you mix baking soda with vinegar it has a serious chemical reaction and puts off carbon dioxide gas which we don't want to breathe, and let it fizz.  If you've ever cleaned out a sink pipe with this method, you know what happens.

If you can do this in the summer when it's hot, so your framing can dry out, wearing rubber gloves, make a runny paste of baking soda and water and paint it on the mold with a disposable paint brush.  Some people at this point spray plain vinegar from a bottle onto the paste, where it will bubble up and go crazy for a bit.   (I like to paint the baking soda on, rather than spray it from a spray bottle because it's denser and stays put, less water, more baking soda.)

Let it set for 30 mins, use a scrub brush or old toothbrush dipped in water and scrub off the worst of it, (no dry brushing as that might spread spores,) catching the drips in paper towels so it doesn't run down the rest of the 2x4s or whatever.  Throw those paper towels away, don't reuse them, don't rub the mold with a paper towel that already has mold on it from another spot.  Dip the brush in a cup of vinegar between cleaning areas.

If all the black doesn't disappear, you can repeat this process until it just looks like a stain, then re-paint the area with baking soda and let it dry for a day or so, just leave it there for future protection.  

I hope this helps.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I will definitely follow all of your advice.
Here are some photos.
The studs that you see fully black have been sanded down and I have put a mold cleaning solution.
As you can see the growing mold is only on very small areas.
The wall with the long black studs is where most of the water came through. We sanded it down as much as we could before installing the plywood but i know we missed some.

Personally I don't like the look of that. Not one bit. I would definitely treat that wood with a mold killer/suppressant before covering it up.

Most mold cleaning methods only work temporarily - the mold will be back.

There are mold treatments that are reasonably non-toxic and long-acting. The commercial version is called Concrobium  
https://www.concrobium.com/en-can/about/  .

But there are inexpensive homebrew concoctions modeled after it and appear to work.

Sources for recipes:

https://www.practical-sailor.com/blog/homemade-mildew-preventers-that-really-work

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/rkrj1w/mix_your_own_mold_and_mildew_killer_for_cheap/

https://stingysailor.com/2021/11/06/remove-and-prevent-mildew-for-pennies/

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Personally I don't like the look of that. Not one bit. I would definitely treat that wood with a mold killer/suppressant before covering it up.

Most mold cleaning methods only work temporarily - the mold will be back.

There are mold treatments that are reasonably non-toxic and long-acting. The commercial version is called Concrobium  
https://www.concrobium.com/en-can/about/  .

But there are inexpensive homebrew concoctions modeled after it and appear to work.

Sources for recipes:

https://www.practical-sailor.com/blog/homemade-mildew-preventers-that-really-work

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/rkrj1w/mix_your_own_mold_and_mildew_killer_for_cheap/

https://stingysailor.com/2021/11/06/remove-and-prevent-mildew-for-pennies/

Thanks Douglas Alpenstock.
I will follow your advice. I am very nervous living here like that so I will take action fast.

Robin Katz, I have added some. Looking forward to your input.


[quote=Robin Katz]Brenda, can you post a few pictures of the framing and plywood? Is the mold just on the framing or in the plywood too? Solid wood can be sanded to remove the worst stains, dried then painted to seal in any residual spores. Plywood is a little more difficult depending on the extent of the water damage. OSB is bad when it gets wet since it's candy to mold and loses some structural integrity.

Good call on not putting in insulation until you're sure the mold is taken care of.[/quote]

For the most part that looks more like bluestain attacking the sap wood rather than mold.  Once it drys it will stop.  If you can keep it dry I personally wouldn't worry about it.  If it does concern you, you could always brush or paint it with bleach.

I am in the process of building a log home.  All of the trees were standing dead so  most of them are blue from bluestain happening while the tree was still standing.  I am not worried in the slightest about it, either from health risks or rotting of the house.  But I am doing everything I can to keep it dry now that it is in the house to stop it from continuing.

Your words bring some relief. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, all the studs that are covered with stains were from when the rain was non stop.
we used the sander and removed as much as we could and added some solution and i even kept sanding by hand when I would see some. Now it is only a little growing here and there and I will try to remove it.

J Hillman wrote:For the most part that looks more like bluestain attacking the sap wood rather than mold.  Once it drys it will stop.  If you can keep it dry I personally wouldn't worry about it.  If it does concern you, you could always brush or paint it with bleach.

I am in the process of building a log home.  All of the trees were standing dead so  most of them are blue from bluestain happening while the tree was still standing.  I am not worried in the slightest about it, either from health risks or rotting of the house.  But I am doing everything I can to keep it dry now that it is in the house to stop it from continuing.

There is a powder additive you can add to paint the stops mold.  It's pretty easy to find at a DIY store.   Probably anyone at a paint store could give you more specific information.

Clean it up as best you can before painting.

Cristo Balete wrote:There is a powder additive you can add to paint the stops mold.

Can you give us some specific details on this? What is the additive? There are many potential uses -- please share!